Light News Dump

GOOD. FINALLY. Monsanto parent company Bayer faces thousands of Roundup-cancer cases after $2 billion verdict
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/monsanto-parent-company-bayer-faces-thousands-roundup-cancer-cases-after-n1007246

US intercepts Russian bombers, fighter jets off the coast of Alaska
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/politics/russian-bombers-alaska-intercept/index.html

Election security bills in the Senate are hitting one big roadblock: Mitch McConnell
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/21/18629428/election-security-mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-russia

Trump’s ‘pro-life’ administration just killed a program on children’s health
https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-trump-children-environment-20190520-story.html

ICE Has A Record-Breaking 52,000 Immigrants In Detention, Report Says — This figure surpasses the number of detention beds that Congress agreed to fund earlier this year.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-detainees-record_n_5ce39a0fe4b0877009939c17

Whistleblower unraveled Danske Bank money-laundering scheme involving $230 billion from Putin's cousin
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-danske-bank-money-laundering-scheme-involving-230-billion-unraveled-60-minutes-2019-05-19/

Russian documents reveal desire to sow racial discord — and violence — in the U.S.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-documents-reveal-desire-sow-racial-discord-violence-u-s-n1008051

Experts call out Trump's EPA for redefining environmental standards to allow for more air pollution— "Let me be blunt: Trump is choosing to kill people in order to increase the profits of the polluting interests"
https://www.salon.com/2019/05/20/experts-call-out-trumps-epa-for-redefining-environmental-standards-to-allow-for-more-air-pollution/

Donald Trump has been warned by the west’s most influential economics thinktank that further escalation of the US-China trade war would unleash significant damage for the American economy, as well as the rest of the world
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/21/trump-china-trade-war-us-economy-oecd-tariff

Some 128,000 people are thought to have been murdered in Syrian jails at the hands of the Assad regime. Thousands were tortured to death. Now, Europe is leading the charge to bring the perpetrators to justice
https://www.dw.com/en/hunting-bashar-assads-henchmen-in-syria/a-48810320

Portland FBI agents installed a panic button for Enes Kanter, who faces death threats for criticism of Turkey
https://sports.yahoo.com/portland-fbi-agents-installed-a-panic-button-for-enes-kanter-who-faces-death-threats-for-criticism-of-turkey-154008306.html

A Homeland Security Whistleblower Goes Public About ICE Abuse Of Solitary Confinement
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/21/ice-solitary-confinement-whistleblower/

Betsy DeVos used her private email account for government work, internal probe finds
https://www.salon.com/2019/05/21/betsy-devos-used-her-private-email-account-for-government-work-internal-probe-finds/

Trump Is Considering Deputizing the Military as a Civilian Police Force. That Is Terrifying.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/trump-insurrection-act-military-troops-police-ice.html

U.S. Wall Funding of $1.57 Billion Yields 1.7 Miles of Fence
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/federal-wall-funding-of-1-57-billion-yields-1-7-miles-of-fence

YEP: Robert De Niro: Trump getting impeached would 'Make America Great Again'
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/05/21/trump-going-jail-would-make-america-great-again-de-niro-says/3750630002/

Climate crisis: Satellites to monitor air pollution generated by every power station in the world - ‘Too many power companies worldwide currently shroud their pollution in secrecy… We are about to lift that veil’, says boss of firm backed by Google
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/satellites-power-station-emissions-climate-change-space-google-watt-time-a8922241.html

Tiffany Trump - who met her father only twice in her life before he ran for the 2015 nomination - had a Cannes holiday that cost US taxpayers at least $20,000
https://qz.com/1623491/tiffany-trumps-cannes-holiday-cost-us-taxpayers-at-least-20000/

Inside Trump Tower, the $300 million 'testament of Mr. Trump's grand vision' that is now reportedly one of New York's least-desirable luxury buildings
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tower-photos-inside-apartments-penthouse-2019-5

Amsterdam to serve vegetarian food by default at all council events - Meetings in the Dutch capital will be meat-free unless attendees specifically request otherwise, the council’s executive body has announced.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/21/amsterdam-serve-vegetarian-food-default-council-events/

Lawmakers change Trump tax law that hit Gold Star families with 'kiddie tax' | The federal government 'is trying to save a few bucks by ripping off' military families,' said Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, D. Ala.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lawmakers-change-trump-tax-law-hit-gold-star-families-kiddie-n1008316

California sues Trump administration over $1 billion in canceled high-speed rail money
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-sues-trump-administration-over-1-billion-canceled-high-speed-n1008406

RNC paid Don McGhan's lawfirm $2 million dollars in April.
https://projects.propublica.org/itemizer/filing/1332072/schedule/sb#SB29-0.402010-1

Mississippi federal judge says the state's six-week abortion ban "smacks of defiance to this court"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississippi-abortion-laws-mississippi-abortion-bill-smacks-of-defiance-says-federal-judge-carleton-reeves-2019-05-21/

Betsy DeVos is the eighth Trump official to use personal email for official White House business
https://www.newsweek.com/betsy-devos-use-personal-email-work-trump-1431800

More than just burgers, Impossible and Beyond 'meat’ are showing up in wraps, bowls, and quesadillas
https://www.philly.com/food/beyond-impossible-burgers-plant-based-bryn-danes-burger-king-qdoba-20190521.html

Earth just had its second-hottest April on record. The world's 5 warmest years have all occurred since 2014.
https://www.axios.com/earth-second-hottest-april-climate-change-ac665707-54db-4741-a4ff-1b5ee7ab3e06.html

House Judiciary Cmte.'s Rep. Steve Cohen tells @TheBeatWithAri that 80-90% of the Judiciary Committee is on board to go forward with an impeachment inquiry against Trump.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1130961488628338688

HUD Secretary Ben Carson defends plan to evict undocumented immigrants: ‘It’s not that we’re cruel, mean-hearted. It’s that we are logical.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/21/house-democrats-grill-hud-secretary-ben-carson-plan-evict-undocumented-immigrants/

Tillerson meets for seven hours with House Foreign Affairs Committee
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tillerson-meets-for-seven-hours-with-democrats-on-house-foreign-affairs-panel/2019/05/21/5e5fa254-7c11-11e9-a66c-d36e482aa873_story.html

New York lawmakers pass bill aimed at weakening Trump's pardon power. The measure, which creates a narrow exception to the state's double jeopardy law, now goes to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/new-york-lawmakers-pass-bill-aimed-weakening-trump-s-pardon-n1008381

Pompeo's Iran Intelligence Briefing Fails to Reassure Democrats
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/pompeo-s-iran-intelligence-briefing-fails-to-reassure-democrats

A campaign finance watchdog group filed a complaint on Tuesday against a Canadian billionaire alleging that he violated a federal ban on contributions by foreigners when his United States-based company donated $1.75 million last year to a political committee supporting President Trump’s agenda. The complaint was filed by the watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center, with the Federal Election Commission against Barry Zekelman, the chief executive of Zekelman Industries, North America’s largest steel tube manufacturer. Mr. Zekelman has pushed the Trump administration to take steps that help block the import to the United States of steel tube made by his competitors. Mr. Zekelman, whose efforts to influence federal policy on steel tariffs was detailed in a story in The New York Times, was invited to a dinner with Mr. Trump at the Trump International Hotel in April 2018, after the first contribution to the Trump-affiliated committee, America First Action Super PAC, for $1 million. Two more contributions — first for an additional $250,000 and then $500,000 more — followed during 2018, making Zekelman Industries one of the single biggest contributors to Mr. Trump’s political causes.  The contribution was made by Wheatland Tube LLC, a Chicago-based company that is owned entirely by Zekelman Industries, which Mr. Zekelman and his two brothers control. Mickey McNamara, general counsel at Zekelman Industries and president of Wheatland Tube, declined to comment on Tuesday about the Campaign Legal Center’s filing. The Federal Election Commission will review the complaint and decide if it wants to investigate the matter. Federal law prohibits contributions by foreigners to federal elections, including super PACs. The law says that a “foreign national shall not direct, dictate, control, or directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of any person.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/us/politics/donation-trump-super-pac-canadian.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6021934-05-21-19-Wheatland-Tube-Signed-and-Stamped-1.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/us/politics/hes-one-of-the-biggest-backers-of-trumps-push-to-protect-american-steel-and-hes-canadian.html?module=inline
https://www.a1apac.org/

Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody in South Texas Monday, had been detained by border officials for twice as long as U.S. law allows, according to a timeline provided to reporters by a Customs and Border Protection official. The fifth Guatemalan child to die after illegally crossing the border since December, Vasquez’s death at a Border Patrol station raises new questions about the length of time minors are being detained, as well as the conditions provided to them while in custody.
https://news.yahoo.com/latest-migrant-child-death-raises-questions-about-us-detention-practices-205712982.html